Theoretical Consensus Has Been Reached On Block Size Debate

An interesting post has surfaced on Twitter earlier today, announcing how a block size debate consensus has finally been reached between all the main parties. No official list has been made available as to who these parties may be, but it looks like Segregated Witness will be coming in April, followed by an adequately researched Bitcoin hard fork three months later. Whether or not this will be effectively true, remains to be seen.

Hong Kong Core/Miner Conference Reaches Consensus

The Bitcoin block size debate has been going on for quite some time now, and various solutions have been proposed throughout recent months. Every solution has its advantages and drawbacks, but it looks like the majority of the Bitcoin community remains for the solution suggested by Bitcoin Core developers.

While the conference itself will run over the course of two full days, a most unusual announcement was made earlier today claiming how consensus has been reached to put the block size debate behind us once and for all. The outcome shapes up to see a release of Segregated Witness in April, and a good Bitcoin hard fork three months after that date.

One interesting point is how there is [almost] no one from the Bitcoin Classic team at the conference to present their views on the block size debate. Whether they were not invited or didn’t bother to travel to Hong Kong, is unknown at the time of publication. But it looks like the consensus has been reached regardless of how their presence.

For weeks now, people have been wondering what kind of implications hard forking Bitcoin would have. The solution proposed by Bitcoin Classic could be seen as a bit of a rush job, as the developers wanted to fork Bitcoin shortly. Bitcoin Core, on the other hand, wants to take things one step at a time, by increasing the block size to 2 MB through Segregated Witness, and looking for future block size increases through a hard fork down the line.

Although it is impossible to reach consensus for Bitcoin Core without support from the community itself, once all mining pools support the solution, there is very little option left for the individual miners. The updated proposal by the Bitcoin Core team seems to have swayed the miners of many Bitcoin mining pools, as they plan to release a much cleaner version of Segregated Witness.

In the end, the final decision still lies with the Bitcoin community, and everyone should make their voice be heard. Even the new Segregated Witness proposal can still be rejected by the community members. An official statement will be released after the conference, and details will be made available as to how community members can cast their opinion on this theoretical consensus.

About The Author

JP Buntinx is a FinTech and Bitcoin enthusiast living in Belgium. His passion for finance and technology made him one of the world's leading freelance Bitcoin writers, and he aims to achieve the same level of respect in the FinTech sector.

Milly Bitcoin

I am glad “they” decided on the consensus for me so now I don’t have to bother looking into it. Decentralization is really turning out to be convenient!